| Sumario: | In this article I analyse the ways masculinity is expressed among tribal migrants from the Northeast frontier of India living in Delhi. Unlike many other groups in India who have long histories of migration and return within and outside the country, tribal migration out of the Northeast in large numbers is a recent phenomenon. Furthermore, men and women are migrating out of the Northeast in more or less equal numbers. Masculinity is being reshaped through the displacement of men from the environment where masculinity is reproduced, by the changes in gender relations brought about by the displacement of both men and women from this same environment and by the ways tribal men find new ways to express what it means to be a tribal man as urban dwellers, the latter captured in the shift from majority community back home to a distinct minority community in Delhi. In analysing these dynamics I argue that migration challenges the masculine norms of home. At home tribal masculinity is reproduced in an environment of insurgency and ethno-nationalist politics, whereas in Delhi it is difficult to enact masculinity in the same way. Despite these challenges, tribal men do find ways to express their masculinity in Delhi. Responding to racism, discrimination and minority status has shaped an urban masculinity that enables tribal men to find new ways of expressing what it means to be a tribal man.
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